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Category: World

US human rights report cites China’s violations in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet

Editor07 mins

China’s abuses targeting Uyghurs, Hongkongers and Tibetans are among some of the worst human rights violations around the world, the U.S. Department of State said Tuesday. “The Chinese government continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs among other minority groups, to erode fundamental freedoms and autonomy in Hong Kong, and to carry out systematic repression in Tibet,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press briefing before the release of the department’s 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The report, which the State Department is required to release each year by law, details the state of human rights and worker rights in 198 countries and territories. The administration of former President Donald Trump officially determined in January 2021 that abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regions (XUAR) amounted to state-sponsored genocide and crimes against humanity. President Biden’s administration has agreed with the designation and has worked with its international allies on measures to hold the Chinese government to account. The 90 pages in the report that are dedicated to China focus on the XUAR and the arbitrary imprisonment of more than 1 million civilians in extrajudicial internment camps and the additional 2 million who are subjected to daytime-only “re-education” training. The report also cited evidence of forced labor, forced sterilizations of women, coerced abortions, more restrictive birth control policies, rape and torture, and draconian restrictions on freedoms of religion and expression. The report cited an Oct. 21, 2021, report by RFA that said more than 170 Uyghurs, including woman and minors, in Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian) were detained by national security authorities on China’s National Day holiday because they allegedly displaying resistance to the country during flag-raising activities. Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, said the State Department’s report is important because it highlights the most urgent crises around the world. “The Uyghur genocide is one of them,” he told RFA. “This reports is important in the sense that it must be used as a reminder that international inaction in the face of Uyghur genocide will lead to the deterioration of human rights around the world.” “The international community must act,” he said. “The Uyghur people have suffered enough in the past five years.”Campaign for Uyghurs also welcomed the human rights report. “Uyghurs are really delighted to see this strong stance to call China out for its crimes of genocide, and standing firmly on the values that ought to be advocated by the United States precisely concerning liberty, respect and freedom for the principles of humanity,” said the organization’s executive director Rushan Abbas in a statement. The report also notes rights violations in Hong Kong, Tibet and other parts of China, includingserious limits on free expression and the media. Journalists, lawyers, writers and bloggers have suffered from physical attacks and criminal prosecution. The U.S. supports human rights by meeting with advocates, journalists and others to document abuses and works with the Treasury Department to apply sanctions and visa restrictions on human rights abusers, Blinken said. It also collects, preserves and analyzes evidence of atrocities. In March, the U.S. government imposed new sanctions against Chinese officials over the repression of Uyghurs in China and elsewhere, prompting an angry response from Beijing and a pledge to respond with sanctions of its own. At the time, Blinken said the U.S. would restrict visas on unnamed individuals he said were involved in repressive acts by China against members of ethnic and religious minority groups inside and outside the country’s borders, including within the U.S. Blinken noted that even though the U.S. has its own human rights shortcomings, the country openly acknowledges them and tries to address them. “Respecting human rights is a fundamental part of upholding the international rules-based order which is crucial to America’s enduring security and prosperity,” he said. “Governments that violate human rights are almost always the same ones that flout other key parts of that order.”

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Myanmar Central Bank official confirmed alive after assassination attempt

Editor08 mins

The deputy governor of Myanmar’s Central Bank is alive and recuperating at a military hospital in the country’s commercial capital Yangon, junta officials said Tuesday, dispelling reports that she had died after being shot last weekend. Than Than Swe was shot by unknown assailants at her apartment complex in Yangon’s Bahan township on April 7 amid a public outcry over a new directive ordering the sale of all U.S. dollars and other foreign currency at a fixed rate to licensed banks. Initial reports by the Associated Press and domestic media suggested that the bank official had died at the hospital from injuries she sustained in the shooting, citing sources close to the deputy governor and a local official.  On Tuesday, junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told RFA that Than Than Swe is being treated at Yangon’s Mingaladon Military Hospital and is in stable condition. “There were no deaths. She is recovering,” he said. “We are now seeing attacks on civilians who have nothing to do with the security forces. We are currently working to prevent such attacks with a system that includes security forces and the public,” he added, without providing details. Aung Kyaw Than, director general of the Central Bank’s financial management department, also confirmed to RFA that Than Than Swe is alive and undergoing medical treatment. Than Than Swe, 55, was sworn in as deputy governor of the Central Bank after the military seized power from Myanmar’s democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. Believed to be the most senior junta official to be shot since the takeover, she is known to have led efforts to reduce the cash flow in the banking and financial system under the NLD, according to a report by The Irrawaddy online news agency. The attack on Than Than Swe came days after an unpopular April 3 bank directive ordering all foreign currency, including the U.S. dollar, to be resold within one day of entering the country to licensed banks at a fixed rate of 1,850 kyats to the dollar. The order also requires government approval before any foreign currency can be sent overseas. Attacks on junta targets On the day of the attack, a group known as the Yangon Region Military Command (YRMC) announced that it had “successfully carried out” the attack on Than Than Swe as it’s “latest target.” The YRMC is an anti-junta paramilitary group that has pledged loyalty to Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) and claims to have carried out more than 1,100 attacks since the NUG declared war on the military in September. On Tuesday, a member of the Free Tiger Rangers told RFA that his group of anti-junta fighters was involved in the attack and that Than Than Swe had been targeted for supporting the military regime and carrying out its policies. “We attacked Than Than Swe, the Central Bank deputy governor,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said the attack was the last objective of a seven-month operation targeting junta members and their supporters and had been carried out “under the direction of the NUG Ministry of Defense.” The Ranger said his group considers anyone who did not join the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) that has seen thousands of people leave their jobs to take part in anti-junta protests “our enemies.” “[However] we don’t kill every non-CDM employee. We only try to get rid of those who have become a huge help to the junta and brought trouble to the people,” he said. The NUG, which has distanced itself from attacks on civilians, did not immediately respond to RFA requests for comment on Tuesday. No ‘normalcy’ in Myanmar Than Soe Naing, a military observer, told RFA that targeted attacks like the one on Than Than Swe are likely to rattle the junta. “The military wants to show the world that the situation in the country is stable and peaceful, and they can do whatever they want,” he said. “These activities [by the opposition] are effective because they reject the military’s claim that normalcy has returned to Myanmar.” Than Soe Naing added that while he didn’t want to comment on whether targeted attacks on civilians like Than Than Swe are right or wrong, they are “surely a consequence of the military coup.” Junta security forces have killed at least 1,745 civilians and arrested nearly 10,200 others since February 2021, mostly during peaceful anti-coup demonstrations, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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Vietnam charges former cop for recording his traffic spat with police

Editor03 mins

A former Vietnamese policeman who in January was sentenced to two years over a traffic spat received an additional charge for recording his interaction with traffic police, state media reported. Le Chi Thanh was once an officer at Han Tan Prison in the southern coastal province of Binh Thuan. He was fired in July 2020 after he accused his supervisor of corruption. Afterwards he became an active social media user, often livestreaming videos that monitored traffic police. Police in Ho Chi Minh City impounded his car on March 2, 2021, for occupying a lane reserved for two-wheeled vehicles. He argued with the police in an attempt to stop them from taking his car, while recording and livestreaming the incident. He was later arrested on April 14, 2021, on the charge of “resisting officers on official duty.” The Ho Chi Minh City Law online newspaper reported that the procuracy in the southern province of Binh Thuan filed an additional charge of “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the state’s interests, legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals” in accordance with Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. Thanh’s lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh, confirmed the new indictment to RFA’s Vietnamese Service. If convicted, Thanh could get two to seven years on top of his earlier two-year sentence, which he has since appealed. During his pre-trial detention, in a video posted on October 29, 2021, Le Thi Phu, Thanh’s mother, called for justice for her son. She said in the video that detention officers had tortured him by cuffing his hands and legs and hanging him over a dung pit for seven days in a row. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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As North Korea’s economy struggles, disabled soldiers suffer more than most

Editor08 mins

North Korean soldiers who were injured during their service are now unable to depend on the state to care for them due to worsening economic conditions, sources in the country told RFA. Officially known as “honorable soldiers,” many of the disabled rely on the government for basic support. For those who are incapable of working, a sudden drop-off in government-provided stipends and food rations can be devastating. “Everyone is having a difficult time because the prices of goods are ridiculously expensive and business has not yet recovered,” a resident of Paegam county in the northern province of Ryanggang told RFA’s Korean Service April 6 on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The honorable soldiers are facing a miserable situation, especially as the nation’s benefits have been reduced due to economic difficulties,” she said. The source discussed the case of an honorable solder in her neighborhood who lost both of his legs and cannot work. “There is no woman who wants to marry him, so he is living with his mother, who is the only person who can care for him. Since last summer, though, her health has become worse since she is getting older,” the source said. “She normally has a vegetable business that she’s been doing for a long time, but she is no longer able, so their livelihood has been badly affected,” she said. Honorable soldiers are classified as grade 1-3 depending on the severity of their injuries. Soldiers who have lost multiple limbs or have become paralyzed and must rely on others for basic tasks are classified as special grade. These soldiers are supposed to get support from the government for the rest of their lives, the source said. “But I know that there is no other support except for a small amount of corn due to the poor economic situation of the country. The military provided firewood after his mother stopped her business, but now even that support has been cut off,” she said. The daily supply of corn from the government amounts to less than 500 grams (1.1 lbs.), hardly enough to live on, the source said. Meat and cooking oils are rarely ever provided in the government support ration. “I haven’t seen our honorable soldier in a while. His wheelchair is broken and he isn’t able to go outside,” the source said. “If you go to the market in Hyesan, there’s a place there that sells Chinese-made wheelchairs, but they cost 200,000 to 400,000 won (U.S. $33 to $66). With no money he cannot afford to get a new one,” she said. The source said she did not know how the soldier had lost both of his legs but many of the injuries to soldiers occur when they are assigned to construction duty. If an accident occurs, their injuries are officially recorded as having occurred while the soldier was on a military mission. The soldiers are often reluctant to reveal how they were injured, except to their closest family members, according to the source. Living conditions for honorable soldiers in the northwestern province of North Hamgyong is “appalling,” a resident of the province’s Orang county told RFA. “The honorable soldiers in Pyongyang and other large cities work at  ‘Honorable Soldier Factories’ which operate at full capacity because they are important to the country, but out here in the small-town rural areas the factories for them aren’t running,” he said. “In our county, we have more than 70 honorable soldiers with relatively minor disabilities. Most of them work at the honorable soldier fishing gear factory, but it has been a long time since they shut down due to a lack of electricity and raw materials,” the second source said. The source said that when the factories shut down, the able-bodied were able to support themselves through other means. “The ordinary residents can survive by going out to sea to fish or going to the mountains to collect firewood to sell, but the honorable soldiers cannot do those things because they can’t move around freely. The lives of the honorable soldiers are far more miserable than those of the able-bodied,” he said. “Even now, the number of honorable soldiers continues to increase. They either have an injured limb or they lost an eye, or things like that. The authorities say that those soldiers are the precious treasures of the country and that they should be taken care of, but there’s no actual support.” Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Lao villagers beaten, detained by soldiers in land dispute

Editor09 mins

Five Lao villagers were beaten and detained Sunday in a village north of Vientiane by soldiers who said the group and their families were living on land owned by the country’s military, according to Lao sources. Around 40 families had lived in Sisawat and Houay Nam Yen villages in Naxaithong district since 1989, when they fled homes damaged by floods at the nearby Nam Houm Reservoir. Soldiers claiming ownership of the land began around five months ago to build there, one local villager told RFA. “Officers from Section 513 of the Vientiane Military Division have been building shelters and a gate on the land for the last four or five months, barring us from farming there,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “And on Sunday, they detained five of us and took them away in a truck, beating them and threatening them with rifles.” Around 60 to 70 soldiers are now present at the conflict site to prevent disturbances and make further arrests, she added. Villagers have lived and farmed in the disputed area for 20 to 30 years, another local source said, also declining to be named. “Our parents lived there until they died, and before the soldiers came. But the soldiers now tell us that we’re living on their land, even though they have no documents to show our village chief proving their ownership. “Their own word is all they have,” she said. Military officers are required to make a report to village authorities of any incident in the area involving their troops, the source added. “But they just took our villagers to a truck and drove away,” she said. Speaking to RFA, a local village authority confirmed Sunday’s arrests. “The five villagers are now reportedly being held in the Vientiane Military Division and are not being allowed to see their relatives and family members,” the source said. Vientiane’s Agriculture and Forestry Department had formerly used the disputed land for feeding livestock. But when the Nam Houm Reservoir collapsed in 1989, villagers moved to the area’s higher ground to escape the flood, he said. The disputed land is now fertile and well suited to feeding livestock and raising crops for cash, he said, adding that villagers had invited army officers to a meeting to help resolve the conflict, but that officers had ignored their request. “The Vientiane Military Division said this was the duty of Section 513, while Section 513 said it was the military division’s responsibility,” the local village authority said. The five detained villagers were residents of Houay Nam Yen village and had temporary documents proving their right to their land, the source said. “But the military officers took these away from them,” he added. Naxaithong district deputy head Phouvone Phong-Latkeo said, however, that local villagers have no right to the disputed land, saying the Vientiane Agriculture and Forestry Department had handed it over to the military following the Nam Houm flood and that it was now property of the state. “Villagers grabbed and repurposed the land without authorizing documents. In fact, the land is reserved for the Nam Houn Reservoir and does not belong to them,” he said, adding that villagers displaced in 1989 by the reservoir’s collapse had already been compensated for their loss. A gate erected by Lao soldiers at the entrance to disputed land is shown on March 25, 2022. Photo: Citizen Journalist The five villagers detained by soldiers on Sunday had not been formally arrested but were taken away for “re-education” because they had gathered others to stage a protest and cause disruptions, Phouvone said. “Thus, the officers had to assert their control and prevent more problems.” Sources told RFA on Tuesday that the five now held are being questioned by military authorities, with no word given yet on when they may be released. “The military will release them later, but they may still end up being held for a while,” a Naxaithong district official said. “Their families have asked the military for permission to visit and bring them some food, but their request was denied. “The military officers haven’t said when they’re going to release the villagers. But some rumors say they might be freed sometime after the Lao New Year on April 15,” a district villager added. Reached for comment, family members of some of those now held declined to speak about the case, fearing retaliation by authorities, while one family member was ordered on Monday to delete a video he had taken of the arrests. An official of the People’s Council, meanwhile, said his office had received no reports of the conflict or arrests. “A report may have been sent to the economic committee, though, because the conflict involves land,” he said. Some of the families living on the 25-hectare area of land now claimed by the army had inherited the land from their parents even before the 1975 communist takeover of Laos, and had paid property taxes on the land ever since, another villager told RFA. “The military says that the land belongs to the army, but everybody knows that the land belongs to the villagers,” the villager said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. “Before building anything, the military should at least have asked for approval from the village authorities, but in this case they began building things without any warning,” he said. Translated by Ounkeo Souksavanh for RFA’s Lao Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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Shanghai extends citywide lockdown after Beijing steps up pressure over zero-COVID

Editor09 mins

Authorities in Shanghai extended a citywide lockdown on Tuesday, in the face of growing public anger over ongoing restrictions under ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy. “Shanghai’s epidemic prevention and control is at the most difficult and most critical stage,” municipal health official Wu Qianyu told journalists. “We must adhere to the general policy of dynamic clearance without hesitation, without wavering.” Wu’s announcement came amid public anger over food shortages amid a citywide logistics crisis, the separation of parents and children in compulsory isolation facilities and the culling of family pets. More than 1,000 Shanghai residents petitioned online for asymptomatic children to be allowed to isolate at home, but the petition was no longer available on the social media platform WeChat on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Shanghai reported 13,086 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases on Monday compared with 8,581 the previous day, following a mass testing program that covered almost all of the city’s 26 million residents. The announcement came after vice premier Sun Chunlan “rushed” to to Shanghai from the northeastern city of Jilin to call on the city not to relax its grip on the virus. “We must adhere unswervingly to the general policy of ‘dynamic zero’ without hesitation, have a resolute and firm attitude, and act swiftly and powerfully,” Sun told municipal leaders in comments reported by state news agency Xinhua. Sun called for expanding mobile cabin hospitals and designated hospitals, preparing a sufficient number of isolation rooms, tracking down infected persons to achieve “daily clearing and settlement” of cases, and “strictly increasing community management and control and guaranteeing basic living conditions and regular medical care,” the report said. An online video clip showed Shanghai municipal party secretary Li Qiang inspecting a residential compound under lockdown, where he was mobbed by residents wanting to share issues. “We want to ask if you’re going to solve our livelihood issues,” one resident asks Li, who proceeds to listen to some of their concerns. Reports of price-gouging A Shanghai resident surnamed Zheng said the lockdown is a crude way of managing the virus, and its impact on people’s daily lives has been huge. “I wrote a letter to the mayor myself, and they replied that it had been passed on, but no one came, so I had to find a way to buy food by myself,” Zheng told RFA. “It is hugely troublesome because courier companies aren’t allowed to deliver now, supermarkets aren’t allowed to open and stores are closed,” he said. “They said they would organize group buying, but the vegetables were horribly expensive.” “We haven’t seen any of the vegetables sent by other provinces to support us here in Shanghai,” Zheng said. Zheng said local officials had been accused of price-gouging in the group-buying business and some had resigned. “The party secretary and mayor of Cai township in the northeast of Pudong stepped down … they earned 20 to 30 million yuan out of just a few days [of lockdown],” he said. A man looks outside from his window during a COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai’s Jing’an district, April 12, 2022. Credit: AFP ‘No different than a lockdown’ While authorities announced on Monday that residents of thousands of residential communities would be allowed to move around in a limited manner for the first time in weeks, a resident surnamed Chen said this didn’t appear to have been implemented on the ground. “It just allowed people to move around within their compound, not to go out,” he said. “It’s no different than a lockdown.” Meanwhile, seriously ill patients across the city remain locked out of life-saving medical care by COVID-19 restrictions and ward closures that are being blamed in part on the diversion of the city’s healthcare personnel to compulsory mass testing programs. Economist Lang Xianping posted on Weibo that his mother had died of kidney failure after multiple PCR tests had failed to yield results soon enough to get her admitted to hospitals in the city. “I was in shock,” Lang wrote. “My mom left me forever after waiting at the door of the ER for four hours.” He said he had been unable to see her one last time. “This tragedy could have been avoided,” Lang wrote. ‘Little better than a slum’ Tensions were running high in locked-down communities, with people shouting out of windows that they were “going crazy” or “dying” or “need supplies.” Several videos circulating online showed authorities unable to respond to the explosion of numbers in need of quarantine beds, with 6-12 people to a room in hastily built field hospitals. In one, the person shooting the scene says the facility is “half-finished” and that everyone had to go and fight for their own bedding. “It’s little better than a slum,” the person says. Another video, titled “one person, one box”, showed confirmed COVID-19 patients sleeping in rows of long cardboard boxes alongside their personal belongings. Li Zhenghong, president of the Shanghai Taiwan Business Association, said member companies are having trouble sourcing supplies of coal, gas, water, electricity and food to take care of their employees. “Logistics is a bigger problem,” Li told RFA. Taiwan epidemiologist Ho Mei-hsiang said the lockdown would have to lift eventually, which would give rise to a larger wave of infections. “Even if they’re successful [in getting to zero] after 20 or 28 days, the question is what happens next?” Ho said. “There is still a bunch of virus circulating outside [Shanghai]. The next time the virus comes in, will they lock down again?” “As long as the virus exists in the world, completing the first three doses of vaccine should be the top priority, not lockdowns,” Ho said. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Hong Kong police are ‘weaponizing’ the law against outspoken media mogul: lawyers

Editor06 mins

Lawyers for jailed pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai, who is awaiting trial under a draconian national security law, have called on the United Nations to investigate the multiple criminal cases against him. Lai’s legal team led by Caoilfhionn Gallagher at Doughty Street Chambers filed an urgent appeal over “legal harassment” against him, saying he had been jailed simply for exercising his right to freedom of expression and assembly and the right to peaceful protest. The 74-year-old founder of the now-defunct Next Media empire, whose flagship Apple Daily newspaper was forced to close amid an investigation by the national security police, has been repeatedly targeted by the Hong Kong authorities, the firm said in a statement on its website. “Hong Kong authorities have repeatedly targeted Mr Lai, … and this has intensified since the passing of the controversial National Security Law in 2020,” it said. It said Lai faces a “barrage” of legal cases, including four separate criminal prosecutions arising from his attendance at and participation in various protests in Hong Kong between 2019-2020, including most recently in relation to his participation in a vigil marking the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in Beijing, for which he received a 13-month prison sentence. He is currently serving concurrent prison sentences in relation to all four protest cases, while awaiting trial for “collusion with foreign powers” and “sedition” in relation to editorials published in Apple Daily. The appeal calls on the United Nations to consider all of the cases against Lai “as they constitute prosecutorial, judicial and legal harassment of Mr. Lai, because of his advocacy of democracy and the rights to protest and freedom of expression in Hong Kong,” it said. “The appeal also highlights intimidatory tactics used against Mr. Lai’s lawyers, which raise further concerns,” the statement said. Lai’s son Sebastien Lai welcomed the move. “My dad’s trials are piling up with no end in sight,” he said. “The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] may have swapped their guns for a gavel. But with patience, a gavel can do as much damage, and make much less noise.” “I urge the United Nations Special Rapporteurs to investigate what the CCP through the Hong Kong government is doing to my father and dozens of other brave Hong Kongers.” Gallagher said the cases against Lai are “spurious,” and that Lai could spend the rest of his life in prison simply for speaking out to defend Hong Kong’s freedoms. “[The] appeal details how the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities are weaponizing the law against him – using the pretext of national security and a range of legal measures not only to silence and punish him for expressing his views, but also to deter others from doing the same,” she said. The Hong Kong national security police said the allegations were “groundless,” and that the national security law “safeguards … many rights and freedoms.” Lai has been in Stanley Prison for nearly 18 months. The appeal came as Hong Kong activist Max Chung pleaded guilty to “organizing an unauthorized assembly” in Yuen Long in protest at an attack by white-clad mobsters wielding sticks on passers-by and passengers in the Yuen Long MTR station on July 21, 2019. He was convicted by District Court judge Amanda Woodcock on April 11. Some 288,000 protesters went to Yuen Long on the day of the protest, which drew widespread public anger against the police, who didn’t respond to multiple emergency calls from the scene until nearly 40 minutes had elapsed. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Myanmar’s military reportedly suffers heaviest casualties since coup

Editor012 mins

Heavy fighting between junta troops and a joint force of ethnic fighters and prodemocracy paramilitaries in Myanmar’s Kayin state resulted in the largest number of casualties the military has suffered in clashes since it seized power last year, according to sources. Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) fighters squared off with the military on Sunday after some 45 soldiers from the 207th Battalion, led by Maj. Thet Naing Oo of the 44th Division, approached the town of Lay Kay Kaw near the border with Thailand at around 2 a.m. on Sunday. The KNLA’s Cobra Column reported that the junta forces began the attack at 5 a.m. with 40 mm guns, supported by heavy artillery fire from Swei Daw Hill and nearby Let Khat Taung township, as well as airstrikes. It said that by the time the fighting was done at around 11 p.m. on Sunday, the military had retreated, leaving 12 soldiers dead. Padoh Saw Tawney, the foreign affairs officer of the Karen National Union (KNU), told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the military suffered its worst casualties since its Feb. 1, 2021, coup. “There weren’t many of them, only about 40 or 50. We could say we wiped out the entire military column,” he said. “They lost their commanding officer. One officer with three stars, the rank of a company commander, surrendered. We also seized a total of nine firearms and a lot of ammunition. And we lost two soldiers from our side.” Padoh Saw Tawney said that the commanding officer, Maj. Thet Naing Oo, was killed in the fighting and that the company commander, Capt. Tin Lin Naing, “will be dealt with in accordance with the KNU’s code of conduct for prisoners of war.” RFA was not able to independently confirm the number of casualties in the fighting. Hpa-Tarah, the mayor of Lay Kay Kaw, said two military jets dropped “at least 16 bombs” in a bid to take control of the town. “The fighting began at about 5 a.m. and ended at about 11 p.m., and then jet fighters flew in and bombed the area about 15 times between 11 p.m. and 2 p.m. [on Monday]. Two jets at a time — it was frightful,” he said. “Their artillery units from the hills also shelled us. About 50 or 60 rounds. The shelling finally stopped at about 5 p.m. [on Monday].” Residents of five villages in the area fled their homes because of the airstrikes on Sunday night, he said. The airstrikes damaged about 30 houses and a school in Lay Kay Kaw, and burned down five houses, according to residents. KNLA Cobra Column spokesman Myo Thura Ko Ko told RFA that the military might have used “chemical bombs” in the airstrikes. “After the bombing raids, there was a strange smell,” he said. “Some of our comrades said it was kind of a sweet smell and some yellow dust was seen floating in the air. Some of them suffered from spells of dizziness.” Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Zaw Min Tun for comment on the fighting went unanswered Monday. A school destroyed by a military airstrike in Lay Kay Kaw, April 11, 2022. Credit: KNLA Cobra Column Refugees face food shortage An aid worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFA that thousands of residents have been sheltering on Myanmar’s side of the border since Dec. 15, when fighting first broke out between the military and anti-junta forces in the region. “There aren’t many refugees from Lay Kay Kaw on the Thai side,” he said. “There are about seven [refugee] camps on this side of the border. According to the latest findings, there are more than 12,000 in seven groups. Along the banks of the Moei River [which separates Myanmar and Thailand], from Phlu Lay village to Kyauk Khat village. All spread out.” Myet Hman, a refugee on the banks of the Moei River, said there were more than 900 people from 600 households in his camp, adding that there is a severe food shortage. “The problem is that we need food badly. Currently, roads are closed on the Thai side and aid workers do not dare to come to us from the Myanmar side. Donors cannot come to us because of several checkpoints,” he said. “We are in dire need of food. We can only provide about a dozen milk-cans of rice to each family this month.” He said the ongoing fighting makes it difficult to estimate when residents will be able to return to their homes. KNU officials have reported daily clashes in areas under their administration, including the townships of Kawkareik and Kya Inn Seik Kyi, and say they are likely to intensify. A video posted to social media purports to show anti-junta fighters opening fire on a military outpost on Yangon’s Inya Road, On April 11, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist Yangon resistance Meanwhile, various armed resistance groups told RFA on Monday that they had launched a dozen attacks on military-held areas of Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon over the past three days. A fighter with the Free Tiger Rangers said that a bomb exploded at a pro-junta garment factory in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar township at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, damaging vehicles. “The junta wants to show that there is peace and things are normal in Myanmar. The revolutionary forces cannot let that happen,” said the fighter, who declined to be named. “The current situation is that we had a military coup, and we will fight the regime in whatever way we can.” Separately, a video posted on social media Monday purports to show a group of anti-junta fighters in a car open fire on a military and police outpost on Yangon’s Inya Road on Sunday evening, killing a police officer. Other anti-junta attacks in the Yangon region over the past three days included the killing of Maj. Kaday Phyo Aung, the Lanmadaw Township’s administration officer, by unknown gunmen, as well as the killing of two plainclothes…

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Relatives of detained Uyghurs forced to work in Xinjiang factories

Editor06 mins

Hundreds of family members of detained Uyghur residents of a small community in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region have been forced to work in local government-run factories, a source with knowledge of the situation and a local police officer said. At least 100 residents from Sheyih Mehelle hamlet in Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) county have been imprisoned by authorities, a security guard from the area told RFA in an earlier report. The hamlet has a population of more than 700 people and is part of Cholunqay village, which has more than 10,000 residents. Authorities have been transporting their relatives, mostly women and some elderly men, by bus to the factories where they work 10-12 hours a day under the watch of staff assigned to oversee them, a source familiar with the situation said. During the first two years of the detentions from 2017 to 2019, Chinese authorities forced the family members of those who had been incarcerated or taken to internment camps to attend political study sessions, the source said. But in the last three years, they have forced the hamlet residents to work in factories for monthly wages of 1,000-2,000 yuan (U.S. $157-$314). China is believed to have held 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim Turkic minorities in the camps since 2017. Beijing has said that the camps are vocational training centers and has denied widespread and documented allegations that it has mistreated Muslims living in the region. Authorities take the family members to factories in Yamachang on the outskirts of Ghulja city, a police officer in Cholunqay village said. “There are around 500 people working in that [place]. … There are factories there that make clothes, socks and gloves,” he said. RFA previously reported that Yamachang comprised more than 20 internment camps set up in 2017 and 2018. The officer, who said he did not know if the residents were paid for their work, told RFA that government officials are assigned to take the families of the detainees to the complex at 6 a.m. The residents are returned to the hamlet at 6 p.m. so they can take care of their children and elderly parents. Besides the mostly women and a few elderly men who work at the complex, at least one ill resident has been forced to work there, he said. “They are mostly women and elderly,” he said. “There’s even one who is always ill. “They have school-age kids, and some have elderly to take care at home,” he said. “That’s why they are brought back in the evening.” Some of the hamlet residents are also working in factories in Aruz farm field, the police officer said. The Chinese women’s affairs director in Cholunqay village said that people who have “graduated from re-education” are among the laborers who work in the factories in Yamachang and at the Aruz farm fields. Gulzire Awulqanqizi, an ethnic Kazakh Muslim who was held at the Dongmehle Re-education Camp in Ili Kazakh (in Chinese, Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture’s Ghulja city from July 2017 to October 2018, told RFA that after her release, she had been forced to work at a glove factory in the Aruz farm fields. The woman, who now lives in the U.S. state of Virginia, said authorities transported her by bus from her dormitory to the factory, where she received only 600 yuan a month for her work. When she returned home at the end of the day, she had to undertake political studies and was subjected to police interrogations. “We went to work from 7 a.m. onwards, and we had 40 minutes for lunch,” she said. “After the factory work, we went to our dormitories.” Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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North Korea appears to be rebuilding tunnels at closed nuclear testing facility

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North Korea appears to be restoring tunnels at its Punggye-ri nuclear testing site, nearly four years after Kim Jong Un publicly closed it in a move that observers said was an attempt to ease tensions in the region. Foreign journalists who attended the closing ceremony Kim Jong Un presided over in May 2018 in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong reported that tunnels used for testing had been destroyed. But later reports noted that only the entrances to the tunnels were demolished and that maintenance activity at the site had resumed. The Open Nuclear Network (ONN), a non-profit organization headquartered in Vienna, Austria, reported last week that North Korea is believed to have built an entrance to tunnel 3, south of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site. The ONN report was based on satellite imagery taken between March 24 and April 6. Residents of the province who were near the Punggye-ri test site told RFA’s Korean Service that they too have seen evidence of construction activities. “A few days ago, I went to my relative’s house in Kilju county close to Punggye-ri, and I saw trucks carrying construction debris,” a resident of Musan county, in the same province, told RFA’s Korean Service April 7 on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The trucks unloaded the construction debris in the open space at nearby Chaedok rail station. Then the construction waste was loaded onto a freight train using a forklift. As soon as it was loaded, the freight train departed,” she said. Access to the part of the station where the debris is stored and loaded is very limited due to a military presence there, the source said. “I heard from my relative who works at Chaedok station that the debris area is surrounded by armed soldiers and is off-limits to the public,” she said. “According to my relative, the rocks carried by the freight train are from the tunnel restoration site of the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site, but no one knows why the debris is loaded onto freight trains … instead of being dumped at the nuclear test site,” said the source. Restoration work at the site has been ongoing around the clock at the site. “Soldiers from the engineering units under the General Political Bureau of the Ministry of Defense are mobilized day and night to excavate and restore the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.” A former high-ranking North Korean official who escaped and resettled in South Korea told RFA that it was likely that the orders to restore the tunnels came from the very top. “The engineer corps under the General Political Bureau is in charge of important construction projects promoted by the party’s Central Committee. If they were the people mobilized to restore the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, it must be considered that this order comes from the supreme commander,” the former official said, referring to Kim Jong Un. Local residents noticed when construction equipment and materials rolled into Kilju county at the beginning of this year, one county resident told RFA. “I don’t know when the tunnel restoration of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site started, but it was in mid-February that we saw things like trucks and excavators loaded with rebar and wood and other construction materials entering the village at Punggye-ri,” the Kilju resident said on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “The nuclear test site tunnels are located in the mountains,” he said. “As trucks loaded with construction materials and excavators are heading toward the tunnels in the mountains where the nuclear test site is located, it seems that the tunnel restoration started in earnest from mid-February.” The Kilju resident also said he had no idea where they were taking the debris after it was loaded at Chaedok rail station. “No one can go near the debris because it is so heavily guarded.  If you take a tiny stone from the pile of rubble at the station, you can be treated as a spy and accused of trying to sell it … to hostile countries, “he said. The two sources both said they were able to see debris unloaded and loaded at the station from a distance of about 100 meters (109 yards) away. RFA reported in March that movement had been detected in satellite imagery of the test site, and experts predicted the site could be completely restored in six months at the latest. Of the four tunnels at the test site, all except the first, which was heavily damaged during North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006, could possibly be restored, Joseph Bermudez, a senior fellow for Imagery Analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told RFA in March. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Investigative Journalism Reportika © March 2022 by Ij-Reportika is licensed under CC BY 4.0